Royal Pain

She was almost to the finish line.

She could practically taste the sweet victory ahead.

It was only several meters away after she'd climbed down Birthday Cake Mountain. And it seemed as if good fortune was on her side throughout this entire journey. But then she felt the ground shake below her, and before Vanellope could even think, cy-bug geysers appeared on both sides of the track.

"What the-? AH!"

Her kart was sent upwards. She couldn't lose her cool because she needed it for her next move to work. She glitched onto the ground and kept glitching each time she saw a swarm heading towards her way. They surrounded her and made as if they were going to attack, but they didn't.

"What's the b-big idea?" She yelled.

Her kart spun out of control, and no matter how hard she pulled the wheel, she couldn't pull it back on track.

And then, it crashed against a Ralph-sized gumdrop and knocked her straight out of the driver's seat. She smacked against the ground, rolled over several times, and finally stopped. Her vision was blurry as she stared up at the darkened sky.

Then she heard the sound of mechanical whirring and immediately got to her feet. A cy-bug was slowly approaching her, making her take several steps back. Vanellope grabbed a smaller gumdrop and raised it in the air. "Stay away! Or I'll smash you!"

The looked as if it was about to jump, but it was stopped. It froze up and squealed, then fell over. Unlike the Butterscotch girl, however, it didn't dissolve into pixels.

Its image flickered like a lightbulb turning on and off and it disappeared.

"Huh…"

Different programs, she assumed.

"Are you okay?" A small but proud voice asked her.

Vanellope rubbed her eyes and for a moment was in disbelief that this particular person was asking that question. "I'm fine, Taffyta."

The platinum blonde racer, also known as Vanellope's nemesis, held a small dagger in hand. Very similar to the one King Candy had. She walked over to Vanellope and grabbed her hand. "Let's go."

"Where?"

"Anywhere but here."

Taffyta led her through the "out of bounds" area, where the cy-bugs were turning over candy rocks and gumdrops, possibly looking for Vanellope.

And the pink racer was moving swiftly with the glitching girl around the bigger candies, completely undetected and with such skill that made Vanellope wonder if she was trained for this or that it was naturally in her code.

But Vanellope stopped them in the middle of their journey because she came to a realization right after she saw the dagger in Tafyta's hand. "Wait a minute… you stabbed Ralph!"

Taffyta groaned in frustration. "I know, I was wrong, but we have to-"

Vanellope snatched her hand back. "Why should I trust you, or believe anything you have to say after you did those things? You l-led us into a trap!"

"Because he told me to!"

Taffyta's voice was desperate. And Vanellope was fully aware of King Candy's power and influence. But she still didn't understand the pink racer's efforts after years of isolation and bullying. "How do I know you won't stab me, too?"

Taffyta sighed and hung her head. "I guess you don't. But you can either take my word for it or stay here and be cy-bug chow."

Even if they were enemies by nature, Taffyta had a point. Vanellope looked back to where her kart crashed, but the entire road was blocked by the millions of cy-bugs searching the area for her. "Okay, fine, l-lead the way."

The two racers fled the scene, taking cover behind large objects and waiting until they were in the clear before charging out into the danger zone. The whole entire scene was the most surreal thing Vanellope had ever seen. Earlier today, when she spotted Ralph and Felix in Candy Cane Forest, the day was bright and filled with opportunity.

And now it was a bleak death trap where one wrong turn could have been lethal. Vanellope always thought of her game as unsafe for her to loiter around places, but it was never this dangerous.

She wondered if other games had this many hazards, and highly respected the main characters from the ones that did.

"Oh, darn…" Taffyta said, peeking out at the exit from behind an oversized jawbreaker. "The way's blocked!"

A swarm of mid-tier cy-bugs were scattered all around the ground, patrolling the entire area for any sign of them. Vanellope turned the other way and thought for a moment.

And she noticed there was another pair of eyes watching the two of them from farther away. And another. And another.

The other racers were huddled together behind a few other big candies, shaking in terror at the chaos. One of them was sobbing into their hands while a few others were trying to calm her down. Vanellope waited until the cy-bugs' attention was directed elsewhere, and made her way over to them.

"It's okay, guys." She said, patting the poor candle-hatted girl on her shoulders. "W-we'll find a way to fix this."

She thought for a moment and had an idea. There were other routes she used to get around the place. And on days when the arcade was closed and the Random Roster Race wasn't taking place, she'd sneak onto the track with her beloved Likkity-Split and take a test drive.

And she was one hundred percent sure that those hidden paths she took were still in place.

She looked at Taffyta, then back at the rest of the characters. "Guys, follow me. I k-know another way around."

Taffyta was skeptical. "You sure that's a good idea, Vanellopee-wee?"

Vanellope snickered at the name. "Would you rather wait 'til this all blows over?"

From where they all stood, it didn't seem like the storm would let up anytime soon. Taffyta and the others didn't have many options. And so, they all nodded and stood up.

"J-just stick together and do as I say." Vanellope stated, firmly. "We'll get out of this, whether he likes it or not."

…

"Kid, where are you?!" Ralph called out over the sound of the chaos.

Calhoun fired off her pistols more times than she cared to count. "Keep your voice low, Wreck-It. We don't want to attract any attention towards her."

Ralph's knuckles were becoming sore from punching so many cy-bugs. Why did they have to be made out of metal and not something softer? Even if their shells were candy-coated, it still hurt to take them down.

Felix was in between the two taller adults, doing his best to keep up with the rising numbers. "Oh, jiminy, what am I to do?" He ducked as an incoming bug came his way. "I'm just a tiny man who fixes things! I can't break them!"

Calhoun gave her guns a break by jabbing into a smaller bug with her elbow. "Do what the bugs do, Fix-It. Use your skills and size to your advantage."

Felix looked down at his signature hammer, a symbol of his heroism in his own game. Then remembered his moves from earlier. Furrowing his brow in determination, he adjusted his cap and charged towards a large creature.

Ralph turned his head to watch, unsure of what Felix was about to do. He saw the handyman slide underneath the bug like a baseball player sliding to home base, spin around, and tap his hammer against it. The bug transformed into a massive egg.

But it wasn't enough. He looked around him for some kind of weapon, and his eyes rested on an oversized lollipop hanging above. "Ralph! Hand me one of those!"

Puzzled but not asking any questions, Ralph did what was asked. And Felix modified the lollipop into a tool of destruction.

It was a hammer, but it wasn't made for fixing. And Felix glanced up at it with satisfaction and raised it above his head. "This'll do just fine."

Ralph watched with his mouth hanging in fascination as this man who was about the size of his leg pounded away at the bugs with his new weapon. He winced every time he heard it smash against the bugs' bodies.

"Don't. You. Hurt. My. Friends!" Felix yelled, punctuating each of his words with a blow.

Ralph had never seen his handyman act so viciously, and he wasn't sure if it amused or terrified him. Or both.

When Felix took a break, he was breathing heavily through his mouth, gripping the weapon tightly with both hands. He looked almost as menacing as the bugs he fought, baring his teeth with some drool at the corner of his mouth, and his hair a mess under his crooked cap.

"Um… you good there, Felix?" Ralph asked, cautiously.

Felix shook his head vigorously, cleared his throat, and adjusted his cap. "Sorry about that. Almost lost my cool."

A small laugh escaped Ralph's lips. "Remind me to never, ever get on your bad side."

Felix turned up to grin at him, and then his eyes grew as wide as plates. "Look out!"

Ralph had been so distracted that he hadn't noticed a bug flying towards his head. And he spun around and was tackled to the ground.

"Get off!" He yelled, trying to push it off. It was stronger than it looked, and its rows of teeth were dangerously close to Ralph's head.

Felix swung his weapon and completely destroyed it in one hit.

"Are you alright, Ralph?" He asked.

The wrecker groaned and buried his face in one hand. "Did I mention that I really hate cy-bugs?"

Calhoun grabbed his hand and pulled him up. "Get a grip, soldier. This is no time for screwing around."

As Ralph continued to fight them, he noticed something much more disturbing than anything else he'd seen from the bugs' behavior. When the creatures went down, they fizzled out and disappeared. But it seemed that the numbers didn't decrease. It was exactly the same as when they first started.

"Oh, sugar." He mumbled in dismay.

"What is it?" Felix asked.

"They're respawning every time we kill 'em."

Calhoun turned her head to him for a brief second, before going back to shooting her guns. She lowered her weapon momentarily to observe the numbers. "He's right."

"Oh, my land." Felix mumbled, running his hand through his hair. "Now how do we get rid of them?"

Ralph thought for a moment and looked up at Diet Cola Mountain. He had a vague memory of a bright light being used to contain the monsters back in Hero's Duty, but for some reason, he was less confident that it would work here. "Sarge, how do you guys stop these beasties?"

"We use a beacon. But I highly doubt any of ours can get their attention from across the tunnel."

Ralph had been contemplating going through with his prior plan with or without alerting the others, but he thought to himself that he would have had a harder time executing it without their help.

"I got a theory." He said.

The two others listened close.

"Vanellope's mountain has a Diet Cola hot spring with these, um…" He made gestures with his hands. "Stalactite mentos hanging above. And whenever the mentos fall in the spring, it makes an explosion. If we get enough of those falling, maybe we could use that as a beacon."

Felix's eyes shone. "That might work! But…" He looked up at the tall mountain. "How are we going to get up there?"

Ralph exhaled through his nostrils. "Haven't figured that out, yet, but we'll brainstorm when we get there."

"Hold up, Tiny." Calhoun said.

The two men looked at her with curiosity.

"In my game, those bugs are drawn to the beacon the same way that those sugar junkies were drawn to their king." Calhoun explained. "In this game, the critters have a new master. They might not follow the light the same way."

Ralph felt his heart sink into his gut. "Are you saying it won't work?"

"I'm saying it won't be that easy. There's a more permanent solution to this infestation than boiling them with diet cola."

Ralph gripped his hair, frustrated that the solution wasn't as simple as he'd hoped. He slammed his fist against a cy-bug that the others were unaware of, and they both jumped in surprise. "I got nothing, then."

Calhoun fired off her pistol several times and thought for a moment. "You saw how all the bugs were connected back in the underground, right? All those wires joined them together while they fed data into that one code."

"Yeah, so?" Ralph retorted, bitterly.

Calhoun rolled her eyes. "So, use your head, cadet. If those bugs are connected to him, then they can disappear at the same time their new ruler disappears."

Ralph blinked. "So… you're saying that if we get rid of Candy, we can get rid of this whole horde?"

"That's my theory."

Ralph looked over at Diet Cola Mountain, again. He wasn't sure whose plan was the correct plan, but he trusted that Calhoun knew these monsters better than anyone. And he nodded his head to her, "Alright."

"But what about your thought about Vanellope crossing the finish line?" Felix pointed out. "Could that still work, too?"

Ralph looked over at Calhoun, who shrugged and said, "Then we've got two options: either help that pipsqueak win the race through this wasteland, or we take out the Alpha male."

Those options didn't sound any easier than trying to get rid of the bugs through a makeshift beacon, but Ralph didn't allow that to phase him. Not after everything they'd been through. Not after witnessing what this monarch had done to his own people.

He would do everything he could to give Vanellope her rightful place in her own game back.

He nodded to Felix. "Let's go find her."

…

Vanellope used multiple paths to lead her companions to safety. There were roads that seemed impossible to drive through, but their faulty codes allowed Vanellope and the rest to easily walk through. They had to burrow their way underground several times, but they came out to the surface unscathed and finally made it to Rainbow Bridge.

On their trip, they rounded up some of the other candy folk and helped them get to the safe zone. Vanellope stood at the front of the group, before the barrier between the game tunnel and the game. "Is that everybody?"

The candy people were huddled together in one big group, shivering and shaking after the whole ordeal.

"S-stay here 'til we give the 'all clear'." Vanellope ordered. "You'll be safe back in the GCS."

Taffyta stepped forward. "Aren't you coming with?"

Vanellope shook her head. "Glitches can't leave the game, remember? Besides…" She turned back towards the map. "I got to go help my friends."

"Thank you for your help!" Candlehead told her, and the rest of the racers and candy folk agreed.

"Don't mention it." Vanellope replied and started back towards the bridge.

"Hold on a second." Taffyta said, walking up to her. The pink racer placed the small knife with the most fatal blade in this entire game in Vanellope's hand. "Take this. It looks small, but it's a pretty good tool."

Vanellope was befuddled at all of Taffyta's actions thus far. "Why'd you h-help me out?"

Taffyta looked back at the rest of the crowd, then directed her blue eyes back at Vanellope. "Because we don't want him to be king."

Vanellope nodded in agreement, then turned back towards the darkened world. "Wish me luck."

…

Vanellope used to think that she was the most hated person in Sugar Rush, and that her existence would cause more suffering than joy.

But she discovered that there was an even worse presence in the game. One that had been the true enemy all along and had caused true pain and suffering to the entire kingdom.

And while Vanellope wasn't at all happy knowing that someone had done such things to what were supposed to be her people, she was glad that she wasn't the threat after all. She was glad to know that she was meant to exist in this world, and that the superstitions that the candy folk had against her were just propaganda.

She was thankful for those two knuckleheads that barged into her game.

She didn't want to think about where she'd be if they hadn't.

And she most definitely didn't want to think about what was going to happen to her right after this fork in the road appeared out of nowhere.

Just as she made it to the halfway point on the bridge, she heard the sound of awful, maniacal cackling, accompanied by glitching.

"What in the-?"

She couldn't even finish as she was picked up and held between two painful pincers of a giant cy-bug. Atop of its shell, a madman whose two identities were still clashing with each other held the bug under his power. His teeth were sharp, his eyes were reddened and had dark circles underneath, and his fingernails were now sharp claws.

And here Vanellope thought his appearance couldn't be more terrifying, and her body shook with terror as he spoke in a frightening, eardrum-shattering tone.

"HERE'S CANDY!"

AN: Hoo-wee, this one was a tough one to hash out. I've been taking forever with these last few chapters because I wasn't sure where I wanted to go with the ending.

I was debating whether or not to finish the same way the movie did, or do something different. And then I thought that since I added in these new elements to the main story, I might as well move in a different direction, so that's what I'm doing.

I've also been occupied with my Human AU Ralphix fic on AO3. It's gotten a bit deeper and heavy, but I still enjoy writing it.